An Early Report

Marge and I are currently at home, in between runs at our agility trial this weekend.

We ran JWW this morning, with ominous black-grey clouds hovering over us. Just as the first dog in the class went to the line, the skies opened up.

I wasn't sure whether I should still run or not; Marge is not a fan of the rain. But, it was not thunder storming. (If it was, I'd have to be a complete idiot to run her.) So, we gave it a shot. Sorry, no video - it was more important that my sister be standing by with hot dog bits in the event that Marge decided she didn't want to deal with the rain and ran out. Here is the map. I hope it's legible. Jump 1 is at the bottom left.

It started out well, I led out between 1 and 2 and Marge took 1-2-3-4-5 easily. I back crossed over 5 in to the weaves.. most people tried to front cross between 4 and 5, but I didn't think I could get there. Marge did miss her weave entrance, but I don't think it's due to the back cross - she has a little trouble with weave pole entrances at trials so far. I personally think it has to due with the new 24" spacing on the weaves, which we do not get to practice at class (and, our set at home is 21" spacing - a big difference for some dogs!) She sniffed a little bit before getting back in to the weaves (probably because she hadn't pooped all morning, much to my dismay), but then ran the weaves really nicely.

I sent her out to the tunnel so I could be in the right position after jump 8 to send her to 9.. but somehow, I sent her to the double instead. I praised the heck out of her though, the rain was coming down and I had no idea she'd be running as happily and fast as she was, and then we got back on track.

I back crossed on the flat before 12 - it doesn't look like it's be a good option based on the map, but it actually worked out really well. The angle wasn't quite as sharp. I should have tried front crossing after the tunnel, especially since the run was already an NQ at that point, but I was just as curious about doing a soft back over 14 to get Marge on my right side for the final jump. It worked it okay, I guess - I tried to send her on to the final jump, but she kind of had to look back at me first to see where I was.

She got to eat an entire hot dog after this run. I was SO proud of her for sticking with me in the rain. I hope to go back there later and kick some serious behind.. it looks like the worst of the weather is behind us, so I hope the handler jitters are, too!

I don't know what it is with me and Jumpers. I really love running Jumpers courses because of the speed and the flow, but I feel like it's SO much harder than Standard. My prediction is that we'll be in Novice JWW for a long time, probably due to my silly mistakes. I hope I can get it together for Marge in Jumpers tomorrow!

There will be a lot more to come from this trial, I hope. **Also, check back sometime in the next couple of days for a newspaper article featuring Marge (and a HUGE color photo of her!).**